Prepare for Signficant Downward Revision of Jobs? 2010 Edition
The government issues benchmark revisions to its jobs estimates every couple of years or so, upon reviewing more complete, and correct data. Often this comes after extensive reviews of tax receipts. This time, US income data from 2010 strongly suggests that there was actual net job destruction, again, during that year, compared with current government estimates from the Household Survey of a net increase of well over one million (see graph below).
Reuters
First look at US pay data, it’s awful
Anyone who wants to understand the enduring nature of Occupy Wall Street and similar protests across the country need only look at the first official data on 2010 paychecks, which the U.S. government posted on the Internet on Wednesday.
The figures from payroll taxes reported to the Social Security Administration on jobs and pay are, in a word, awful.
These are important and powerful figures. Maybe the reason the government does not announce their release - and so far I am the only journalist who writes about them each year - is the data show how the United States smolders while Washington fiddles.
There were fewer jobs and they paid less last year, except at the very top where, the number of people making more than $1 million increased by 20 percent over 2009.
The median paycheck - half made more, half less - fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999.
The number of Americans with any work fell again last year, down by more than a half million from 2009 to less than 150.4 million...